He felt that the Dahomian monarch was attempting to show his power and give the impression that his army was larger and more powerful. Forbes started to count the number of soldiers under King Ghezo. The Dahomian holiday ceremonies continued concurrently with Commander Forbes's continuous discussions with King Ghezo. Commander Forbes was frustrated and angry. He believed that palm oil had some profit but little power. King Ghezo made it clear that he would not stop the slave trade. King Ghezo offered Forbes a footstool, rich country cloth, a keg of rum, ten heads of cowry shells, and a caboceers stool. As was customary, Captain Forbes and King Ghezo exchanged gifts with each other. Forbes of the Royal Navy arrived to West Africa on a British diplomatic mission, where he unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate with King Ghezo to end Dahomey's participation in the Atlantic slave trade. Their songs celebrate their victories and the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery.' Captain Forbes at Dahomey It is the source of their glory and wealth. Biographer and historian of Africa Martin Meredith quotes King Ghezo telling the British, 'The slave trade has been the ruling principle of my people. After the British abolition of slavery, King Ghezo fought against British attempts to curtail Dahomey's exportation of slaves.

Dahomey was a major West African power that immensely profited from the Atlantic slave trade. Aina ended up in the court of King Ghezo of Dahomey as a young child slave. Aina's parents died during the attack and other residents were either killed or sold into the Atlantic slave trade. In 1848, Oke-Odan was invaded and captured by the army of Dahomey. Dahomey's army began to expand eastwards into Oyo's former and defenseless Egbado territory, capturing Egbado slaves in the process. The Oyo Empire began to disintegrate by the 1830s, fragmenting Yorubaland into various small states. During Oyo's war with Dahomey, Oyo was weakened and destabilised by the Islamic jihads launched by the growing Sokoto Caliphate. Oyo and Dahomey began to engage in a war in 1823 after Ghezo, the new King of Dahomey, refused to pay annual tributes to Oyo. The Kingdom of Dahomey was under subjugation by Oyo, and it was a historical enemy of the Yoruba people. Originally named Aina (or Ina), she was born in 1843 in Oke-Odan, an Egbado Yoruba village in West Africa which recently became independent from the Oyo Empire (present-day southwestern Nigeria) after its collapse.

Forbes, from his 1851 book Dahomey and the Dahomans being the journals of two missions to the king of Dahomey, and residence at his capital, in the year 18

She married Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies, a wealthy Lagos philanthropist.Įarly life Lithograph of Forbes Bonetta, after a drawing by Frederick E. Forbes of the British Royal Navy and became a goddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was given as a 'gift' to Captain Frederick E. She was a princess of the Egbado clan of the Yoruba people in West Africa, who was orphaned during a war with the nearby Kingdom of Dahomey as a child, and was later enslaved by King Ghezo of Dahomey. 1843 – 15 August 1880), was ward and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. Sara Forbes Bonetta, otherwise known as Sally Forbes Bonetta, (born Aina or Ina c. Ameyo Adadevoh (great-great-granddaughter)

Family tree queen victoria descendants